


Dim

by Princex_N



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Insecurity, Light Angst, Self-Esteem Issues, some eleventh hour spoilers, taako 'im kind of an idiot wizard' taaco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 06:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8478835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princex_N/pseuds/Princex_N
Summary: Taako knows that he's not ever the smartest guy in the room.Most of the time he couldn't care less, but sometimes it gets to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> intelligence is arbitrary and means literally nothing but sometimes it sucks being stupider than all your friends

The first time it really comes up is after the whole scene with the Fantasy Gachapon. 

It takes Taako a lot longer than it usually would to understand what he's supposed to be doing. It's been a long day and a lot of shit happened pretty quickly and he's a  _little_ distracted. 

He gets it figured out with the help of the vaguely pissed off guy at the counter who talks to him like he's a kid and Taako gets a pretty neat little ring out of it. He doesn't actually think about it much until afterwards, when they've left the room and Magnus is elbowing him in the side and laughing, "That was hilarious!" and it takes Taako a while to figure out what the hell the human is even talking about. 

So Taako keeps up the goof every time they go to the Gachapon. He doesn't mind it, it is fun and it's fucking hilarious to pull the same shit over and over again in different ways. It doesn't hurt his feelings or anything, and he's not doing it to cover something up or make himself feel better about it all. 

But sometimes, he thinks about the initial assumption and feels a little sick. 

-

Taako knows that he's never the smartest guy in the room. 

Most of the time it doesn't matter. As long as you get the job done, no one cares, and in this line of work, intelligence doesn't usually rank high on the list of necessary important skills to have. 

Plus his new teammates are their own brands of idiot, so they don't have much to say on the matter either.

But sometimes, it comes up, and when it does, it kind of sucks. 

It's small enough for Taako to get away with, but it's still there. When a joke goes totally over his head and no one explains. When Taako doesn't understand something and everyone kind of laughs and gives him a look that tells him to stop joking around. Only he's not joking around, he has no idea what the fuck is going on. 

And Taako's not usually one to give shits about what other people think about him, but there's something horrific about not being able to understand something that everyone else does. Especially when they see it as being so plainly easy that they can't imagine that he's serious about  _not_ getting it. 

It sucks, but Taako's not about to start complaining about it. Never point out your own flaws unless you're ready for someone else to take advantage of them.

Besides, it's fine. He can handle himself. He can read and do basic math and hold his own in a fight and pull of some wicked sick magic. The stuff he can't do is superfluous.

So no one has to know, he'll be fine. 

-

 

That whole locker riddle situation in Refuge was probably one of the worst. 

Like honestly thank the gods Magnus had that shit down because Taako was utterly clueless. If Magnus had needed any help, they would have been fucked. Taako hadn't even really grasped what was happening at all until Magnus literally spelled it out. 

He feels better knowing that Merle hadn't been faring much better, but it's a cheap sort of relief when he knows that his inability to process shit could have led to him and his friends dying even more than they had. 

Nothing happened, and it wouldn't have been his fault if something had (and they would have just come back to life afterwards), but he thinks about it a lot. 

He dreads the thought that they might encounter a situation like that again, when the consequences are a hell of a lot more permanent. 

It's a shitty thought.

He should probably just stop thinking about shit. 

It's not something he's particularly good at anyways. 

-

Angus is another thing. 

It's not anything that he does on purpose, and Taako doesn't hold anything against the kid, but that doesn't actually help. 

Angus is a kid that soaks up information like a tiny genius sponge, and he runs around looking for something to learn no matter where he is. And it's a weird thing to feel inferior around a literal child, but Taako is apparently petty enough to manage it.

Angus walks around, looking for new things to learn or for help figuring things out, and Taako kind of hates it 

He respects it, but for some reason Angus is weirdly fixated on Taako, who isn't smart and who isn't good at teaching.

And Taako would usually love it, because Taako loves attention and he likes kids and Angus reminds him vaguely of himself when he was a kid, only Angus is smarter and better at making good decisions, but Taako doesn't want to teach Angus shit. 

It's for a shitty reason that Taako doesn't like to think about, so he doesn't. He weasels his way out of conversations with Angus and uses Merle's weirdly strong hatred of the kid as an excuse to get away. 

He knows that he's probably hurting the kid's feelings, because the boy is fucking  _ten_ , but kids are resilient. Taako doesn't doubt that Angus will get over it and learn from someone else, someone who's better than Taako is. 

He deserves a better teacher than Taako ever could be, anyway.

-

"Hey, are you okay?" 

Taako startles and looks up from the book he's been looking over for the past few hours. Magnus is standing at the other end of the table, looking vaguely concerned. 

"Peachy, my guy." Taako says, his ears twitching curiously, "Why? What's up?" 

Magnus shrugs, "You've just been sitting out here for a while. I wanted to check and make sure you were okay."

Taako has been sitting in this library for the past several hours, trying and failing to get his head around just  _how_ to do this fucking spell. It doesn't matter how many times Taako reads this section, it just doesn't sink or make any damn sense at all. 

He's usually pretty good at teaching himself stuff (how else would he have gotten this far?), but sometimes shit just doesn't work out. He keeps trying because it'd be a rad spell to have out in the field, and because he's had a rough week and he wants to prove to himself that he  _can_ learn this spell. 

But he has been sitting here for hours and has been getting nowhere, and Magnus is still hovering at the end of the table, looking restless and awkward and so Taako shuts the book and stretches his legs and says, "I saw a shelf in some back closet that looks solid as hell, and no one's using it." 

Magnus perks up, and they go together to blow a shelf right the fuck up so that Magnus will have something to whittle while they chat, because Taako's not great at a lot of stuff, but distractions are one of his top skills.

And sometimes it's nice to reaffirm that you actually have skills that other people appreciate, even if they aren't the most conventional. 

**Author's Note:**

> a vent? maybe?? I'm a big fan of "dim as hell and totally chill with it" Taako, because i'm that way most of the time. But some of the times it fucking bites. and because i love that Angst, i decided to write about that. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Speaking of angst tho, i'm working on a piece about Magnus, i'm just having some trouble getting a hang of the voice. keep an eye out tho, hopefully it'll be out soon.  
> [my tumblr](http://www.princex-n.tumblr.com)


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